NMSU President Barbara Couture
In my first weeks as president of New Mexico State University, I have been warmly greeted by faculty, staff, students and our surrounding communities.
I must admit it is this spirit of enthusiasm and generosity that held my great attraction to New Mexico State University when I was first introduced to the university search committee and later to the many wonderful NMSU community members whom I met as I interviewed last fall. Their collegiality, their enthusiasm, and their genuine support for the mission of this great university is a great strength, and one that will pull us through many of the challenges ahead.
It will take time and careful study for me to understand, together with faculty, staff and students, the true potential of all of the assets of our great university. And while I am learning from others in the NMSU community, we will be pressured and obligated to meet many immediate challenges to our continued success. I would like to take this opportunity to share just a few of these challenges, outlining the approach I hope to take to address them as our spring semester gets under way:
State funding
First and foremost is the university’s state-aided budget. We all have read the initial proposal from the Legislative Finance Committee and our governor’s response. To say this is not going to be an easy budget year is to be at risk of understatement. Like nearly every state in our nation, New Mexico is facing state budget shortfalls and it will be a very, very difficult session ahead for the men and women of our Legislature.
The university, like every other state agency, will have to trim the budget and demonstrate it is operating as efficiently and as effectively as possible. At the same time, we cannot afford to diminish the valuable asset that our university system is to this state, not only as one of the major employers of the state’s workforce, but also as a leading institution of higher education in a system of public universities and community colleges that is the envy of the world.
In these highly competitive times, institutions of higher education must maintain their value and role in providing a competitive edge to the state and nation.
We don’t know yet what the impact of the final state budget will be, but we do know now that if the budget as proposed by the LFC stands, we will face major damage to our instructional programs and our primary research areas. During the 30-day session, I will work with our very accomplished university staff and our friends in the Legislature to assure that the interests of our students and the teaching, research and outreach infrastructure of our university are preserved and remain strongly supported.
Keeping enrollment strong
Second, while celebrating our increased enrollment this spring, we need to work hard to keep student enrollment strong for the next several years. Key to that success are the relationships between our university campus and each of our system community colleges. Equally important is the work we do with our local and statewide high schools to encourage young people to go to college.
As a land-grant institution, NMSU has the facilities, faculty, staff and locations to reach out to young people, adults, businesses, industries and governments across the state, providing general and specialized educational opportunities.
Our great challenge is to coordinate these efforts so that all of those who interact with us have meaningful and effective ways to reach their goals. As of Jan. 1, the four partner presidents of the NMSU community colleges – in Doña Ana County, Alamogordo, Carlsbad and Grants – will directly report to my office. This structure more effectively recognizes their roles as leaders of partner institutions and, through their regular contact with me, we can focus on those critical issues that will make our system stronger.
We also will be looking at ways to strengthen our relationships to high schools and high school teachers across the state.
The academic and research core
Third is the challenge to strengthen and expand our academic and research core. I am eager to learn more about where our departments and colleges have been building research and scholarly expertise, how this expertise has translated into academic programs that we are uniquely qualified to deliver, and how our faculty are connecting with the federal, state and foundation sources of funding that can help them continue and expand their work.
Following the upcoming session of the New Mexico State Legislature, I will hold an open forum on the Las Cruces campus for faculty and staff. The forum will give participants an opportunity to talk with me directly about their concerns, hopes and dreams.
In the meantime, I will continue to meet with many college and department leaders in committee forums, individual meetings and at campus events, and I plan to reach out to students as well. I am eager to hear the thoughts of faculty, staff and students about what we can do to support the ambitions and plans of our academic community.
As part of this process, you can be sure that I will familiarize myself with our faculty’s unit plans, with the benchmarks of our “Living the Vision” plan, and with the research, teaching and service strengths of our faculty and staff. These strengths, again, are our greatest assets and I will do my very best to work with you to build upon and protect them.
Cooperative extension
In early meetings as a presidential candidate last fall, I promised to spend time visiting our Cooperative Extension Service sites and campuses statewide. My fourth initiative for the semester is a road trip, where I can spend time in as many of the communities that we serve that I can reach this semester while meeting our other obligations.
We serve a vast and varied constituency, from a wide variety of cultural groups to traditional, state-of-the-art, and futuristic industries and research laboratories. All are important to our mission, and as soon as we have completed our important work in Santa Fe, we’re going to get to know all of these constituencies better.
Fundraising
In recognition of the important role private funding plays in supporting public universities, I plan to become actively involved in NMSU’s “Doing What Counts” fundraising campaign.
Earlier this month, I attended the pops festival of the Las Cruces Symphony and met many fine community members who have been longtime supporters of the arts programs in this community and in our university. Sprinkled in this crowd were several relative newcomers to Las Cruces, folks who came to this community specifically to enjoy the quality of life that a great land-grant university community provides.
I spoke with one couple about the “great idea” that was the Morrill Act and America’s legacy of land-grant universities. We add value to the state and its communities through our forward-looking research, outreach to government and industry, and the arts and humanities programs that add to our quality of life.
NMSU is now in the midst of a campaign to raise $225 million in support for the university by December of 2010. I am proud to announce that as of Dec. 31, 2009, the Doing What Counts campaign exceeded $216 million.
Many alumni, donors and friends of NMSU have contributed to this success, and I would like to recognize the 20 percent of NMSU faculty and staff who have made financial commitments to the mission of NMSU through payroll deductions or one-time gifts to the campaign.
I wish to take this opportunity to say “thank you” to each of them for their contributions, for believing in their colleagues, colleges and departments, and for supporting the academic success of our students through scholarships and enhanced educational experiences. Because of their contributions and our ongoing fundraising efforts, more than 1,000 student scholarships have been established, more than 200 colleges and departments now have supplemental operating funds, and more than 70 faculty are honored to hold endowed positions.
We can be proud of these accomplishments as we move forward to complete the campaign, and you can be assured that I will be a headliner supporting these efforts.
Extending NMSU’s reach
Hand-in-hand with the fundraising are ongoing projects that contribute to economic development in the area. We are proud of the NMSU Arrowhead Center and the opportunities it provides for translating faculty and student research into marketable products and services; we are eager to begin the Center for the Arts project, which will have a significant impact on our entire region; and we are excited about the potential the university has through its involvement with the Early College High School program to lead nationally with an innovative educational approach that increases access to college for New Mexico students.
These efforts are in the spirit of our land-grant mission and are indicative of the broad reach NMSU has in developing our surrounding communities. Extending that reach while building on the specific academic research and creative strengths of our university will be a key theme as I interact with the NMSU community over the coming months.
And I welcome input about our future and the strategic directions we might take to strengthen NMSU’s unique contribution to our national system of research and land-grant institutions.
Couture is the president of New Mexico State University.